Q: 300 mgz powerbook pc card recommendations.. USB, USB & Firewire?
I have a wallstreet 300 mgz powerbook and am trying to get a pc card to at least get usb, and firewire too if possible. The cards I have tried are not working (2 belkin...) the compatible powerbook list on one of the pc cards from Belkin said it was compatible with all but my 300 version? Thought this was odd...?
Any insight here?
Several say they will work and haven't. Does anyone know of one that will work on this unit? Several has shown USB icon on desktop but unable to read or open contents or get chooser to ID the printer. Chooser did show Drivers installed as did extensions show and were selected... uurrrg!
It would be nice to have USB & Firewire, but would at least like to have USB.
Any insight here?
Several say they will work and haven't. Does anyone know of one that will work on this unit? Several has shown USB icon on desktop but unable to read or open contents or get chooser to ID the printer. Chooser did show Drivers installed as did extensions show and were selected... uurrrg!
It would be nice to have USB & Firewire, but would at least like to have USB.
powerbook G3 300mgz Wallstreet, Mac OS 9.2.x, OS 9.2.2
Posted on Jan 8, 2006 4:42 PM
by jpl,Solvedanswer
Hall,
USB PC cards work just fine on all of the Wallstreets. I did notice you were running OS 9.2.2 and that may be the problem. When Apple released OS 9.2.x, a bug was introduced which created problems with USB CardBus PC cards, but there is a workaround.
Also, PC cards do not supply sufficient bus power to run bus-powered devices like portable HDs. You will either have to get a PC card that has its own power adapter or buy USB devices that have their own power supply.
Some users forget to install the necessary USB Adapter Card Support software; it is not automatically installed by the OS since you have no USB hardware. You can custom install the software but it would be the wrong set of extensions anyway.
Go to Other World Computing and download their custom set of USB extensions; this is the same software Apple uses but it is a combination of different version numbers.
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech/ftp/usb/usbextensions.sit
Once expanded on the desktop, you will see these extensions:
USB Support v1.4.1
USB Software Locator v1.5.6
USB Device Extension v1.5.6
USB Mass Storage Support v2.0.4
USB Mass Storage Extension v2.0.4
Now open your System Folder > Extensions folder and remove all the extensions with the same name (don't worry about the version numbers)...drag the extensions in the Extensions folder to a new folder on the desktop for storage and name it whatever you wish. Now close the Extensions folder and System Folder. Please make sure you do not have two extensions with the same name.
Next, drag all five extensions from OWC on top of the closed System Folder icon...they will be placed in the correct location.
Before restarting, go to your Energy Saver > Advanced Settings and uncheck 'allow processor cycling' for both Battery and Power Adapter, otherwise your 'book will freeze in the presence of the USB PC card...another bug.
Now restart and test.
Any FireWire PC card should work as long as the three FireWire extensions are installed:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58642
FireWire Support
FireWire Enabler
FireWire CardBus Enabler
The above are not the latest versions (I believe FireWire 2.8.7 is) but this will get you going. The latest versions are contained in 9.2.1 or 9.2.2 and I will have to examine the tomes to see where they are.
USB PC cards work just fine on all of the Wallstreets. I did notice you were running OS 9.2.2 and that may be the problem. When Apple released OS 9.2.x, a bug was introduced which created problems with USB CardBus PC cards, but there is a workaround.
Also, PC cards do not supply sufficient bus power to run bus-powered devices like portable HDs. You will either have to get a PC card that has its own power adapter or buy USB devices that have their own power supply.
Some users forget to install the necessary USB Adapter Card Support software; it is not automatically installed by the OS since you have no USB hardware. You can custom install the software but it would be the wrong set of extensions anyway.
Go to Other World Computing and download their custom set of USB extensions; this is the same software Apple uses but it is a combination of different version numbers.
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech/ftp/usb/usbextensions.sit
Once expanded on the desktop, you will see these extensions:
USB Support v1.4.1
USB Software Locator v1.5.6
USB Device Extension v1.5.6
USB Mass Storage Support v2.0.4
USB Mass Storage Extension v2.0.4
Now open your System Folder > Extensions folder and remove all the extensions with the same name (don't worry about the version numbers)...drag the extensions in the Extensions folder to a new folder on the desktop for storage and name it whatever you wish. Now close the Extensions folder and System Folder. Please make sure you do not have two extensions with the same name.
Next, drag all five extensions from OWC on top of the closed System Folder icon...they will be placed in the correct location.
Before restarting, go to your Energy Saver > Advanced Settings and uncheck 'allow processor cycling' for both Battery and Power Adapter, otherwise your 'book will freeze in the presence of the USB PC card...another bug.
Now restart and test.
Any FireWire PC card should work as long as the three FireWire extensions are installed:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58642
FireWire Support
FireWire Enabler
FireWire CardBus Enabler
The above are not the latest versions (I believe FireWire 2.8.7 is) but this will get you going. The latest versions are contained in 9.2.1 or 9.2.2 and I will have to examine the tomes to see where they are.
Posted on Jan 8, 2006 8:31 PM